The Holiday (2006)
Directed by Nancy Meyers
Two women, one American and one British, swap homes at Christmastime following bad breakups. Each woman finds romance with a local man but realizes that the imminent return home may end the relationship.
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In that vein, the film pays lofty tribute to great comedies past, from The Lady Eve to Mr. Hulot's Holiday and Punch-Drunk Love , but Meyers has clearly failed to learn anything from these great works.
It's made by people so dumb they really think that references to The Lady Eve and His Girl Friday will augment their project for its imaginary "discriminating" audience (let me break this to you gently: no one who respects film is voluntarily viewing The Holiday) while simultaneously mystifying the "broader" audience with a depth of movie knowledge.
He's introduced her to classic movies and heroines such as Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday.
It's made by people so dumb they really think that references to The Lady Eve and His Girl Friday will augment their project for its imaginary "discriminating" audience (let me break this to you gently: no one who respects film is voluntarily viewing The Holiday) while simultaneously mystifying the "broader" audience with a depth of movie knowledge.
In summary: putting Eli Wallach in your movie as an aging Hollywood legend is cute, but including an actual scene from His Girl Friday is a reminder that we could be watching that movie instead.
He's introduced her to classic movies and heroines such as Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday.
He launches into a Jack-Blackian set-piece in a DVD store, amusing Iris by humming famous themes—Jaws, Gone with the Wind, Chariots of Fire—and so providing suitable diversion from the still hanging-around Jasper (he’s called to ask her help in editing his manuscript, claiming that he needs “some Iris").
The cinematography by Dean Cundey (2006's " The Holiday "), making brilliant use of the steadicam and a lush 2.35:1 widescreen format that doesn't waste one inch of the frame, is intoxicating.
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(The movie also features a dumb, self-referential joke, in which Miles, giving Iris a quick movie-music tutorial as the two browse the racks of a DVD store, grabs a copy of "Driving Miss Daisy" and burbles on about its terrific score by "Hans.")
He launches into a Jack-Blackian set-piece in a DVD store, amusing Iris by humming famous themes—Jaws, Gone with the Wind, Chariots of Fire—and so providing suitable diversion from the still hanging-around Jasper (he’s called to ask her help in editing his manuscript, claiming that he needs “some Iris").
Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Rufus Sewell, Jack Black and Eli Wallach star in a comedy by Nancy Meyers, who wrote and directed Something's Gotta Give, one of the smartest films of 2003.
I respect that writer/director Nancy Meyers can churn out safe, cozy mass entertainment that racks up big box office sales, and seems to favor the female audience ("What Women Want," "Something's Gotta Give").
With films like What Women Want and Something's Gotta Give, director Nancy Meyers has established herself as a filmmaker who aims squarely at the adult female demographic.
Screenwriter/director Nancy Meyers ("Something's Gotta Give") clearly needed an editor.
Writer-director Nancy Meyer, whose Something's Gotta Give had greater depth and better casting, succumbs to rom-com conventions—references to classic movies, lots of quirky neuroses (Diaz can't cry; Law is a weeper!), rushing to and from airports and gratuitous dancing and air-guitaring to pop songs.
"The Holiday" is two love stories in one, written and directed by Nancy Meyers ("Something's Gotta Give"), Hollywood's reigning queen of expensive-looking romantic comedies in which everyone appears to be both wealthy and fresh from the hairdresser's.
As the old guard screenwriter from Hollywood’s Golden Era, Eli Wallach ( The Misfits , The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly ) is just charming, and the relationship between his character and Winslet’s is sweet and heartwarming.
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And not in that fun "My Dinner With Andre" or Woody Allen way; in that I'm-trying-hard-to-make-you-forget-I'm-an-insanely-attractive-movie-star kind of way.
(This used to be Nora "Sleepless in Seattle" Ephron's bailiwick, until "Bewitched" made her star fade a bit.)